Hi, I’m Em!

I’m a Research Fisheries Biologist in the Eastern Bering Sea Survey Team in the Groundfish Assessment Program at NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) in Seattle, WA. There, I venture on surveys studying the fish and environments around Alaska and develop statistical analyses and data products so we can better understand the health of these ecosystems.

I care deeply about making science open, accessible, and collaborative. I am actively involved in teaching and promoting the use of open science and R programming across NOAA Fisheries, as a core Openscapes mentor and co-organizer of the NMFS R Users Group.

Before AFSC, I worked in Silver Spring, MD where I was a contractor for the Office of Science and Technology (OST) in the Economics and Social Analysis Division providing statistical and data visualization expertise for the national annual Fisheries Economics of the US report. Before that, I was a John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow working in OST’s Assessment and Monitoring Division’s Protected Species Science Branch working on sea turtle issues and marine mammal acoustics. I obtained my BS and MS degrees in quantitative fisheries ecology from Stony Brook University. My thesis research focused on the development of species distribution models that combined fisheries-independent bottom trawl survey data with oceanographic models to predict suitable habitat and distributional shifts.

I grew up in New York’s Hudson Valley and have a deep appreciation for the Hudson River. This iconic river, besides being the best sixth borough of NYC and beautiful, is home to my favorite fish friends, like the Hudson sturgeon, and has seen changes in its ecosystem with overfishing and pollution that lead to important landmark environmental legislation and conservation, heavily inspiring the work I do today.

In my spare time, I enjoy hiking and camping, enthusiastically bantering with classrooms about all things science and how cool the ocean is, and studying my fish friends through water color or clay!